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Architecture & Design

Mini-talks: The Machine Intelligence Landscape: A Venture Capital Perspective by David Beyer. The future of global, trustless transactions on the largest graph: blockchain by Olaf Carlson-Wee. Algorithms for Anti-Money Laundering by Richard Minerich.

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Process & Practices

In-App Subscriptions Made Easy

There are various types of subscriptions: recurring, non-recurring, free-trial periods, various billing cycles and any possible billing variation one can imagine. But with lack of information online, you might discover that mobile subscriptions behave differently from what you expected. This article will make your life somewhat easier when addressing an in-app subscriptions implementation.

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Operations & Infrastructure

Mini-talks: The Machine Intelligence Landscape: A Venture Capital Perspective by David Beyer. The future of global, trustless transactions on the largest graph: blockchain by Olaf Carlson-Wee. Algorithms for Anti-Money Laundering by Richard Minerich.

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Enterprise Architecture

Mini-talks: The Machine Intelligence Landscape: A Venture Capital Perspective by David Beyer. The future of global, trustless transactions on the largest graph: blockchain by Olaf Carlson-Wee. Algorithms for Anti-Money Laundering by Richard Minerich.

Achieving Agility Needed for Business Survival

An increasing number of organizations are embracing Agile development as a survival tactic in these turbulent economic times. This in turn has lead to a number of pundits examining what attitudes and attributes their teams need to be successful. Business agility is important – the ability to “sense environment change and respond efficiently and effectively to that change”, but how is this agility achieved?

Picking just three topics from the plethora of material available, we find the importance of values, motivation, and extreme interviewing to help select the right people.

Values & Ethics

Michele Sliger (co-author of The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility) identifies Agile as the ethical way to do business focusing on eight ethical behaviors which lead to organizational success:

Commitment to doing what is needed to deliver business value

Focus on doing only what delivers business value

Openness by honestly conveying the real project status

Communication – talk to each other, answer questions quickly, and help team members coordinate work efforts

Simplicity of purpose, spending time on things that deliver the maximum value for the minimum cost, delivering value early

Feedback from stakeholders to help keep the team focused on what value is being delivered

Courage to make decisions and courage to say no when delivery of value is under threat

Respect for each other and for stakeholders outside the immediate team, understanding who we are building the product for and caring about their needs

(An observant reader will notice that these are essentially the values from eXtreme Programming, and align well with the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.)

Motivation Inspired by Restaurateurs

An Enthiosys newsletter titled Chefs and Agile Restaurateurs discusses the need for business agility, drawing the comparison between Agile development and chefs. The article raises a number of useful comparisons that Agile teams will benefit from remembering:

Revenue happens when customers buy and use our solutions, not when we release them. The chef with the most magnificent menu isn’t successful; it’s only when people come along and order the food that we can become successful

Releases don't equal revenue. The uncoordinated kitchen which gets the meals out in the wrong order results in unhappy customers; it’s only by getting the meals out in correctly that we create happy diners, who pay for this meal and come back for more

Well coordinated releases put money in the cash register sooner. A smoothly flowing kitchen allows us to turn the tables quicker and make more money sooner

Pick the Right People

How do we select people with the right attitudes? CIO Magazine has an interview with a pair of leaders who apply “Extreme Interviewing” to filter applicants and identify those with the Agile attitudes, focusing on collaboration, creative exploration, learning attitudes and teamwork skills.

The interview process is demanding, and probably somewhat daunting for participants, but it ensures that people who join their teams have the right fit and skills needed to contribute to success. People trump process, and having the right people provides the best base for business success.

There is no magic wand solution that guarantees survival and success in these turbulent times, but an increasing number of businesses are recognizing that Agile attitudes and practices provide a framework for hope and tools to respond quickly to changing market needs.

Shane,Jean Tabaka and I have been doing a series of posts on our blog regarding how to Cut Costs with Agile - www.rallydev.com/agileblog/tag/cutting-costs/ I assume this is consistent with your "Business Survival" theme - As, focusing on increasing agility is a great way to remove costs from your business.

I would point the readers to a piece I wrote for TechTarget back in January as people were preparing for layoffs. The question of who to hire make sense only when you are hiring:) I tried to answer who to let go as you increase your agility. (Cutting your way to increased IT Agility - searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/news/colum... )